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Title: Flexible Ultra Moisture Barrier Film for Thin-Film Photovoltaic Applications

Abstract

Flexible Thin-film photovoltaic (TFPV) is a low cost alternative to incumbent c-Si PV products as it requires less volume of costly semiconductor materials and it can potentially reduce installation cost. Among the TFPV options, copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) has the highest efficiency and is believed to be one of the most attractive candidates to achieve PV cost reduction. However, CIGS cells are very moisture sensitive and require module water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of less than 1x10-4 gram of water per square meter per day (g-H2O/m2/day). Successful development and commercialization of flexible transparent ultra moisture barrier film is the key to enable flexible CIGS TFPV products, and thus enable ultimate PV cost reduction. At DuPont, we have demonstrated at lab scale that we can successfully make polymer-based flexible transparent ultra moisture barrier film by depositing alumina on polymer films using atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology. The layer by layer ALD approach results in uniform and amorphous structure which effectively reduces pinhole density of the inorganic coating on the polymer, and thus allow the fabrication of flexible barrier film with WVTR of 10-5 g-H2O/m2/day. Currently ALD is a time-consuming process suitable only for high-value, relatively small substrates. To successfully commercializemore » the ALD-on-plastic technology for the PV industry, there is the need to scale up this technology and improve throughput. The goal of this contract work was to build a prototype demonstrating that the ALD technology could be scaled-up for commercial use. Unfortunately, the prototype failed to produce an ultra-barrier film by the close of the project.« less

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
OSTI Identifier:
1057661
Report Number(s):
DE-EE-0000588
DE-PS36-09GO99003
DOE Contract Number:  
EE0000588
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
14 SOLAR ENERGY; flexible moisture barrier, atomic layer deposition, ALD, barrier films

Citation Formats

Dean, David M. Flexible Ultra Moisture Barrier Film for Thin-Film Photovoltaic Applications. United States: N. p., 2012. Web. doi:10.2172/1057661.
Dean, David M. Flexible Ultra Moisture Barrier Film for Thin-Film Photovoltaic Applications. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1057661
Dean, David M. 2012. "Flexible Ultra Moisture Barrier Film for Thin-Film Photovoltaic Applications". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1057661. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1057661.
@article{osti_1057661,
title = {Flexible Ultra Moisture Barrier Film for Thin-Film Photovoltaic Applications},
author = {Dean, David M.},
abstractNote = {Flexible Thin-film photovoltaic (TFPV) is a low cost alternative to incumbent c-Si PV products as it requires less volume of costly semiconductor materials and it can potentially reduce installation cost. Among the TFPV options, copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) has the highest efficiency and is believed to be one of the most attractive candidates to achieve PV cost reduction. However, CIGS cells are very moisture sensitive and require module water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of less than 1x10-4 gram of water per square meter per day (g-H2O/m2/day). Successful development and commercialization of flexible transparent ultra moisture barrier film is the key to enable flexible CIGS TFPV products, and thus enable ultimate PV cost reduction. At DuPont, we have demonstrated at lab scale that we can successfully make polymer-based flexible transparent ultra moisture barrier film by depositing alumina on polymer films using atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology. The layer by layer ALD approach results in uniform and amorphous structure which effectively reduces pinhole density of the inorganic coating on the polymer, and thus allow the fabrication of flexible barrier film with WVTR of 10-5 g-H2O/m2/day. Currently ALD is a time-consuming process suitable only for high-value, relatively small substrates. To successfully commercialize the ALD-on-plastic technology for the PV industry, there is the need to scale up this technology and improve throughput. The goal of this contract work was to build a prototype demonstrating that the ALD technology could be scaled-up for commercial use. Unfortunately, the prototype failed to produce an ultra-barrier film by the close of the project.},
doi = {10.2172/1057661},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1057661}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Oct 30 00:00:00 EDT 2012},
month = {Tue Oct 30 00:00:00 EDT 2012}
}